Tuesday, June 26, 2012

New Mission President Week

Hey Mom!

This week has been crazy. It's the week of the new mission president seminar
where all of the new mission presidents get trained, so that means
that all of the general authorities are here. I haven't seen any of them yet,
but the MTC has been super busy with all the sections roped off for them. We
only have half of the lunch room to use and the line for it is always enormous.
Tonight we will have our devotional and we are all sure that it will be a
general authority; it's scheduled to be an hour longer than usual, and the
apostles are all here, so I'm pretty sure it's one of them. Also, all of the
teachers tell us that President Uchtdorf likes visiting the German building and
talking with the missionaries going to Germany while he is here. We haven't seen
him yet, but the general authorities with be here until Thursday, so hopefully
we see him. I've never seen a member of the First Presidency or an apostle up
close and personal, so it should be crazy if he shows up.

In terms of our teaching with
investigators, we have begun teaching another companionship as role playing
investigators as well. Elder Bonzo and I teach Elders Orchard and Root, and vice
versa. It's a pretty cool experience and it reassures me that we are all on the
same level still in terms of language and teaching. Our last lessons with Karl
(Brother Luna) have been crazy. Two lessons ago, we talked about why we go to
church, the importance of the sacrament, and how he can be blessed. We were a
little short on time, and our commitment for him was kind of last minute, so it
wasn't the best lesson; however, our lesson yesterday went amazing. We were able
to apply scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel to his life and his kids, and
really helped him to see why he needs to be baptized. I invited him to be
baptized, not expecting him to say yes, and he paused for a second and said,
"Ja, wann?" (yeah, when?). It totally caught me off guard, but we set up a date
for him to be baptized on July 17, the day we leave the MTC. That way, we can
keep teaching him the rest of the lessons while we are here. It was a really
crazy experience and the spirit was really strong.

In terms of the language,
everything is going well. I'm getting better at reading quickly and putting
verbs in the correct places in sentences. It's weird how many different things
can push a verb to the end of a sentence, like another verb, a subordinating
conjunction, etc. Sometimes it is really confusing, but I enjoy the challenge. I
know it is only going to get better from here. I have started listening to a lot
of native speakers during our TALL lab, and it is getting easier to understand
them even though they are speaking like lightning.

Anyway, things here are generally really good, and I am getting excited to head
to Germany. I hope you have an awesome week and that all is well. Bis
Später!